Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel Footage

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Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel Footage[1] is a 1937 documentary film which shows the burning, explosion, and crash of the zeppelin Hindenburg. (See Hindenburg disaster.)

The film is narrated by Herbert Morrison, who was there to watch the zeppelin's arrival in the United States. At that time, Morrison was a 31-year-old Chicago radio reporter, whose commentary was recorded and not broadcast until later. It has been combined with the separately filmed newsreel footage. To modern eyes, the result may appear to have been a live broadcast with pictures and sound, but it was not. Some 15 newsreel cameramen were in attendance, but none captured the Hindenburg's first flames on film.

The orignal reel has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

1 Multiple reels
2 Sequence of events that caught on film
3 Quotation
4 External links

[edit] Multiple reels

The newsreels show the same fire sequence, although many of the cameras stopped rolling until the ship was on the ground. The Pathe and Castle newsreel and the Universal Newsreel basically show the same images. The camera, which had turned down to the ground, moved up, showing the ship already burning. The Paramount reel caught the same sequence but is much closer. These three versions are the closest to the first flames, although they were taken by the time the fire had consumed a third of the ship. The Pathe and Castle/Universal reels had their cameras facing up more, while the "close-up" versions had went down when the ship touched the ground. Other newsreels only caught the sequence when:

Just before the ship touched the ground.
When the port side near the engine section bent in, creating another explosion.

[edit] Sequence of events that caught on film

1. The rear third of the ship is burning.

2. The bow goes up, while the stern stays level to the ground.

3. Just when the ship's tail touches the ground, flames roar out of the nose "like a blowtorch" (first part of sequence only caught in still pictures, not newsreels).

4.The section just in front of the engines bends in, causing a small explosion to occur.

5. The ship is now on the ground, and as the word "Hindenburg" gets "erased" by the flames, the ship touches the ground and bounces up again, and the ship crushes to the ground.